The Nickelodeon(s)

Here you can find out
some more details about SAILOR's various Nickelodeons and see
some pictures of the instruments - from Georg's original creation
to the Steinway-Nickelodeon and all the other successors.
The band new 'Mark 7' Nickelodeon was first used in August 2010.
You can see it at the bottom of this page.

1974
- 1978

The
Nickelodeon story(taken from the official SAILOR biography):

By the time the first SAILOR album
was finished the complexity of the group sound created a new
challenge for SAILOR: How were four musicians going to
successfully deliver the sound of about ten instruments on stage
without increasing their line-up? (Bear in mind that this was
1974, long before the advent of computer keyboards which can play
any sound at the touch of a button.)
Within a very short time, in fact possibly as little as a month
after the final mix of the SAILOR album, Georg had come up with
the solution: a custom-designed all-purpose machine, the
constituents of which were two upright pianos, two synthesizers,
mini organs and glockenspiels all mechanically linked and
contained within a wooden frame also designed by Georg.
Construction work took place above a pub, appropriately in one of
the seedier parts of London.
Henry: "I remember standing next to Georg handing him
hammers, nails, glue, sandwiches and anything else required, as
he set about his creation like a man possessed! After the final
staining of the wood which made it resemble some strange piece of
antique furniture, I recall standing back, looking at it and
thinking: 'He actually expects us to play the bloody
thing?'"
The basic keyboards were back to back, enabling Phil and Henry to
face each other when playing, and also to talk to each other when
bored. Phil played what was referred to as the bass side, Henry
the treble side, and so the Nickelodeon was born.

The
Nickelodeon(taken from the official "The Third Step"
tour programme 1976):

"Finally a few
words about the £ 7000 dream-machine which bears a passing
resemblance to duplicate honky-tonk pianos removed from any Dodge
City saloon during Gold Rush era and placed back to back on
stage.
The instrument is basically Georg's brain-child and is in fact
the casing of two upright pianos moulded together to look like an
old-fashioned barrel-organ and raised on a rostrum so that it can
be played standing up.
Georg rigged up some piano keys to a Piano Mate, two synthesisers
and a glockenspiel device was adapted from a series of doorbell
mechanism which instead of activating a clapper to hit a bell now
sets of little hammers against glockenspiel bars.
There is a DC current activated by that part of the piano action
which is like hammer, so you can play glockenspiel and piano
together or either separately. Other synthesisers fitted
underneath provide bass pattern from a keyboard and there are one
or two secret modifications which they are keeping secret.
The device which is quite unique and their own patent is now
insured for an undisclosed sum and almost priceless."

In some 70s TV shows fake
Nickelodeons were used instead of the original one. This was
because some people thought it would be much easier to place a
fake Nickelodeon on the stage than to get the original one for
only one or two songs for TV shows (e.g. Musikladen, Starparade).
So, some funny fake Nickelodeons appeared from time to time
throughout the 70s...

1991
- 1993

After SAILOR“s
reunion in the 90s a new Nickelodeon had to be created. The new
blue Nickelodeon was at first only needed for TV performances, so
that the keyboards on Phil“s and Henry“s side were placed on it
in order to perform with playback.

1993 - 1996

When SAILOR
were finally able to perform live again it was necessary
to create a new Nickelodeon for live concerts. The
construction of the black Nickelodeon happened in 1993.

The black
"GK" Nickelodeon had a red lightchain and a
bell.
It was so big and heavy that it needed its own van and
driver to get to the concerts.

Georg about
the black Nickelodeon: "... The next one was the
black one - the sort of Steinway-version of the
Nickelodeon - which cost a huge amount of money. I think
it was very beautiful, and of course it collapsed, but it
still weighed a ton, and it was a monster - a serious
piece of kit, as they would say. It was a very
substantial piece of equipment, but hey - it was a
substantial part of SAILOR! That's something I completely
designed and had built, I didn't build it myself, but I
had people build it. But I designed all the details on
it, which took a lot of time. I thought it looked very
nice, I was very pleased with that one."

In the
meantime the remainings of this Nickelodeon were moved to
the webmaster's garden:

...And later to the
webmaster's brother's garage:

1996
- today

In 1996 another Nickelodeon had to
be built because the black Nickelodeon's keyboard on Henry's side
had been "injured" during a performance in late 1995,
and there were also other difficulties, e.g. because the red
lightchain was broken.

That“s why SAILOR decided to
build a new Nickelodeon. The result was a Nickelodeon which was
made out of plastic. It contained many small plastic parts and a
metal frame, so that it could quickly be built before SAILOR“s
performances without taking up too much space during the
transport. Inside the metal frame there was also room for a fog
machine and some special lights.

Sometimes the fog machine inside
this Nickelodeon produced too much fog, so that it looked as if
the whole instrument was on fire. During a SAILOR performance in
a German TV show in 1997 the fog even came out of the keyboards:
Because of this Phil said: "It“s still hot from us playing
it", and Henry“s comment upon this was: "Looks like
dinner“s ready." ;-)

2001
- today

And now... the 2001 version:
This Nickelodeon was first used at the show in Wolfsburg
(Germany) on 03 November 2001. It was created by SAILOR's sound
engineer and tour manager Graham Naylor. Graham has been involved
in designing the last two Nickelodeons, the black one (see above)
and the new blue one. The idea of the black one was a frame that
could be taken apart, with the moulded panels that were shaped
like the old Nickelodeon. This packed into flightcases which
meant it could travel more easily - but it was heavy because of
the cases! So, in 2001, Graham suggested building a new
Nickelodeon that was its own flightcase. The guys agreed and
Graham designed and built the new Nickelodeon, with help from
Rob:

2004

During the last years there were
two Nickelodeons that were being used by SAILOR for their shows -
the black plastic-version created in 1996 (see above) and the
blue version created in 2001 (see above).
In 2004 Rob Alderton designes another version, as Phil Pickett
explained in his Holland Tour Diary: "Rob has been designing
a wonderful new "frock" for the keyboards on certain
shows where the "Nick" might be too cumbersome, or
expensive for certain promoters. It's beautifully elaborate and
intricate in design and we're sure, if asked nicely he might
eventually post it on Marinero some time in the future."
Unfortunately it was only used at two concerts in Rostock and
Reutlingen (Germany) in December 2004, when the new Nickelodeon
("Nickerbox" ;-)) was only half finished. The design
was completed but unfortunately never used again...

And here's Rob's
original design of the "Nickerbox" side-pannels:

Front

Side

2006
- 2010

One pf the newer
versions: A cardboard copy of a Nickelodeon...

2010
- today

The brand
new Nickelodeon, Mark 7by Phil
Pickett

For a long time now fans of SAILOR will be
aware that however much they have enjoyed and appreciated
the band over the years, ocean-going amounts of
imagination were required to recall past glories in
relation to its theatrical, highly distinctive and
totemic mascot - the infamous
"Nickelodeon" - long considered to be
SAILORs audio-visual trademark by fans and
promoters the world over.
Of course, for those in the know all of the
subsequent versions were loosely based on our very first
solid wood contraption replete with doorbell mechanisms,
Kemble back-to-back pianos and the earliest
of stone-age synthesizers, all lovingly assembled by our
own youthful hands back in the day at the
Nightingale pub in wood Green - possibly the heaviest and
most complicated musical instrument ever to grace a
stage!
Hundreds of shows and tours had sadly rendered the latest
edition, last in a long line of imitations virtually
unusable, (Mark 6 according to Katrin Wagner including
the dreaded cabaret Table-odeon but
lets not go into that please!) - battered and
"unfit for purpose" with all that was left
 just a few bits of cardboard and sad twisted
metal.
But what to do? Wed had so many different designs,
all good in some ways but perhaps either too heavy for
todays airlines exacting weight standards,
Ryanairs blunt rudeness or too difficult and
time-consuming to erect (know the problem?) - plus all
manner of other technical issues. Ask Mark or Dan (or
better still, dont!)*** A Hundred Smiles ***
So the road to our beautiful brand new shiny 'Nick' in
some strange metaphysical way (in my mind at least)
started way back last autumn 09 when upon leaving
Prezzos with Ann late one night in my home town of
Lewes, I glimpsed the back of a custom-built
intriguingly-designed van shooting past, the only thing I
could make out on the back of which was "X-Piano
Orchestra" and "A hundred smiles per
hour!" But alas, no phone number.
A thought immediately sprang to mind. Whoever designed
and built this unique mode of transport, could they not
surely be the imagineers who could conjure up
a design for SAILORs new Nickelodeon ..the
Mark 7?
Later scouring the net I found a Myspace site for the
"X-Piano Orchestra" and someone called Paul
Harrison. I left several messages over the passing weeks
but alas, received no reply whatsoever.
Having all but given up hope in this direction, a few
months later I happened to visit a lighting store in
Brighton to look into some new ideas for the group and
its theatrical development, whereupon a
conversation with the owner unexpectedly led to a
reclusive local boffin named Paul, a builder
of amazing props for all kinds of theatrical events -
even Disneys "Lion King" up in the West
End, Brighton storefronts and props for MTV videos.*** "Underneath the Arches..." ***
"Is he by any chance connected with the X-Piano
Orchestra?"
I enquired, only to delightfully realize that this was
indeed the individual concerned. Unfortunately the owner
had no contact details for Paul but a vague idea that his
workshop was somewhere under the arches of the huge
viaduct that trains slowly traverse on their last leg
towards Brighton station, but couldnt tell me
exactly where.
After several sorties in my car, much walking around
asking puzzled passers-by and knocking on doors, out of
the blue I eventually came upon the old van parked
adjacent to some workshop buildings... Eureka!
Henry will back me up on this, (as admit in my
enthusiasms am prone to occasional exaggeration!) but
knocking the door, finding it slightly open and
hesitantly entering Pauls topsy-turvy workshop, I
suddenly felt like a child again walking into a vast
emporia of Disney magic, a dark twinkling cave of stage
props, masks, musical instruments and charming mannequins
the like of which Id never seen outside of
Toy Story or Pinnochio (for older
readers!) At three in the afternoon the
boffin-designer-in-chief himself, a modern-day Gepetto,
was actually fast asleep on a raised platform bed above
his desk. You couldnt make it up!
After a few cups of tea, initially drowsy and no doubt
startled by a stranger entering his workshop (also
apparently his home!) unannounced, Paul immediately
warmed to the theatricality of Sailor, remembered all of
our hits and was thrilled to be asked to design and build
SAILORs Nickelodeon Mark 7.
I knew I had definitely come to the right place!
Over many visits and consultations in the weeks and
subsequent months, Paul, with technical assistance and
exquisite design of the internal structure and
engineering aspects from staging expert, Alex Saunders,
began to construct a model. Armed only with stringent
weight, size and design requirements from Henry and
myself plus a few old photographs from fans, they
thoughtfully, and with a wonderful eye for quality,
elegance and detail slowly designed and assembled the
unique new construction you now see before you and that
we are proud to call "The Nickelodeon Mark 7".
The inaugural "build and pack" on August 6th,
only one day before our show in Torgau, Germany was
incongruously attended by none other than the
self-proclaimed "God of Hellfire" himself
also no stranger to camp theatricality and
entertainment...the legendary Arthur Brown. Dont
ask me why!
He suddenly appeared out of nowhere like a ghost from
Top of the Pops at the workshop just at the
precise moment we needed an extra pair of hands (or
perhaps just to prove that the story could indeed become
even more bizarre and unlikely!)
Like moths to a flame, the universal laws of Theatrical
Entertainment are obviously governed by mysterious dark
forces of which we know not!
Shortly coming to your town .SAILOR On Fire?
Who knows?
Phil Pickett